this species, Mr. H. Saunders has stated that I found
the Velvet Scoter in the locality last named during May
1876. The birds of this genus seen there at that
season by us were Common Scoters, (Edemia nigra. I
observed a pair of Velvet Scoters at a very short distance
from our vessel, amidst hundreds of Wigeon, near the
mouth of the Rhone in the winter of 1874, but this
is, in my experience, very rare in the Mediterranean.
I noticed that the small parties of Velvet Scoters in the
harbour of Santander generally kept aloof from the
Common Scoters, which were in much greater numbers;
the present species was by far the more wary of the two.
The food of this bird consists chiefly, if not entirely,
of small marine animals, at least we could not find any
trace of vegetable matter in the stomachs of those that
we examined; I do not, however, consider the present
species as such an adept and enduring diver as the
Common Scoter. In Europe, we are told that this bird
in the summer frequents the lakes of Scandinavia and
Northern Russia.
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